Appreciation
by thwipster808
Summary: Nico di Angelo Birthday Event: January 28 – "Happy Birthday Nico!" Nico gets the appreciation he deserves


**A/N: What's that? I'm late? Good thing time is an illusion.**

Was Will being weird? Looking back, Nico thought he probably was, but at the time, he didn't notice.

Will grabbed Nico to help at the infirmary all day so he wasn't lonely, or so he said. He dropped the date a few too many times for it to be normal, claiming that he was trying to keep Nico's sense of time in check, but it didn't matter – Nico never knew the date except the ones that marked the beginning and end of summer.

"Will, it's sunny outside. Why can't I go train?"

"Nico, it's still winter."

"Will, we live in a camp protected by a magical border. It's chilly at best."

"Did you just say 'chilly'? It sounded cute."

"Don't distract me, Sunshine."

As much as Nico loved working with Will in the infirmary, it wasn't his place. He didn't like being cooped up for long, especially when there wasn't much to do. Usually, Will was very understanding of that, but apparently not today.

"But Nico," he whined. "Then I'll be all aloooone."

Nico rolled his eyes, what could he say to that? "Fiiiine," he relented. He never put up much of a fight with the son of Apollo these days. "Can't we do something fun then? Before I start cutting up bandages with my sword."

Will glared at Nico, who was confused by the slight pink in the other boy's cheeks. "Stop that, Death Boy. I'm sure your Stygian Iron blade is filthy with all the monsters you've killed. Do you ever clean it?"

The son of Hades cocked his head to the side, which Will found adorable. "No? It'll just get covered with more monster dust." He hopped up onto one of the infirmary beds and swung his legs. "So, do you have anything fun to do?" he asked again.

With a sigh, Will looked around. "Well, I think there might be some Uno cards somewhere." He turned back to Nico, who looked confused once again. "Have you played before?"

"No," Nico shook his head.

Will smiled and went to get the cards. Nico picked it up quickly and their games lasted for a while. They ended up playing until it was almost dinner time.

Nico stood up and stretched, cracking his back. His eyes were closed, so he didn't see the way Will blushed as Nico's shirt exposed a strip of pale skin. After rolling out his neck, Nico opened his eyes to find Will looking everywhere but at Nico. He quirked an eyebrow, but didn't really question it. "I'm going to go back to my cabin before dinner. You made me miss my afternoon nap." Nico half-heartedly glared in Will's direction before pushing past him towards the door.

To his surprise, Will frantically grabbed onto his wrist as he went by. "No!" he exclaimed, surprising them both.

Nico turned in confusion to the healer. "Um, why not?" He glanced down at the point where Will held onto him, very aware of where their skin touched.

Will realized what he was doing and quickly dropped Nico's hand. "Well, uh, I mean, you can't sleep now," he managed to get out. "It's, like, too late for a nap. You're going to miss dinner!" It seemed like a pretty good excuse, if you asked Will. He wasn't a very good liar, but he could definitely find a medical justification when needed.

Apparently, Nico didn't care. "I ate a big lunch," he shrugged, and turned to continue out the door.

Will was too jumbled up to reply. "But—" and Nico was out the door. Unsure of what to do, Will ran out after Nico.

Nico quickly walked over to Cabin 13 in case Will decided to stop him for some random health reason. He just wanted to relax for a bit, what was so wrong with that? As he approached his cabin, however, he noticed something covering the front of it. Or, rather, a multitude of _somethings_. Colorful pieces of square paper appeared to be stuck all over Nico's cabin.

A prank. Nico's cabin was pranked. And Will didn't want him to go there. That meant…

Nico whirled around, annoyed and on the edge of anger, as Will caught up to him. "You knew, didn't you?" Will looked caught, his eyes darting between Nico and the cabin. It only ticked Nico off even more.

"I—" Will started, but Nico didn't want to hear his lame excuse. He scoffed and turned back towards his cabin. The offending papers only hurt his eyes.

"Nico, wait—" But Nico was already storming up to his cabin, intending to rip off the papers and drop them into a void of darkness to scare off whoever did this. When Nico was close enough, he reached out, only to stop short as he noticed writing. Every paper had words scrawled out in different handwriting. He would've gotten even more upset that it was a group prank, maybe even the whole camp, except when he grabbed the first note, there weren't insults written on it like he expected.

_You're a great swordsman_.

"What…" Nico muttered to himself, entirely confused by the message. His head snapped up to look at the other notes in front of him.

_Thanks for fighting for CHB._

Next.

_Your powers are pretty cool._

Another.

_I love the dark look._

Another.

_You saved camp._

_You have a pretty face._

_Don't die._

_You belong._

One after another, Nico read the notes plastered on his door and front wall. Each one had words of encouragement or appreciation. Some were dumb, others made him blush, but all were entirely positive.

_Happy Birthday._

That was on most of them.

Nico had no idea what was happening. Happy birthday? Where did these come from? Why were they put here? Were they meant for him? Who did this? He didn't know what to feel. His anger had melted away, but he still felt a little irritated at not having any explanation as to why these were here. He felt his heart stuttering in his chest, both from the compliments and the paranoia that this was all some big joke, that someone, or several someones, was mocking him.

Someone cleared their throat quietly behind him. Nico spun around to see Will standing at the bottom of the cabin steps. He had a small smile playing at his lips.

Nico only gaped at him, speechless, so Will spoke, looking at the ground. "It's… uh, they're words of affirmation. For… your birthday." Will turned his face up to beam at Nico. "Happy birthday, Nico."

Nico just stared at Will and processed his words. He turned back to the notes, back to Will, then back to the notes.

"Oh…" he breathed, and he felt tears prick the backs of his eyes. His birthday… _what?_ "How did you…"

Will climbed the steps and stood next to Nico. "I have your medical records. Chiron isn't 100% sure they're right, but it's what we have." He looked over at Nico, who looked like he wasn't even breathing.

"I… I can't even remember when my birthday is." Tears pooled in his eyes.

"Oh, Nico." Will's heart broke and he pulled Nico into a tight hug. Nico blinked and tears rolled down his cheeks. He was still shocked, unable to return the embrace.

After a few seconds, Will leaned back and held Nico's shoulders. "I'm sorry, Nico. But, look, all these notes are from our friends." He gestured out at the multi-colored sticky notes, pleasantly surprised at how many there were. "Even some from people you probably don't know. Everyone here sees you and appreciates you for so many reasons."

Nico sucked in a breath as he realized, "Wait, you… you planned this?"

At that, Will sheepishly rubbed his neck. "Well, kinda, yeah. You didn't seem to know that it was your birthday, so I told everyone to put nice notes on your cabin while I kept you busy all day." Will chuckled, "Some people are a liiiiittle scared of you and didn't want to run into you as they defaced your cabin."

Nico laughed and wiped the tears from his cheeks. He couldn't believe it. Will did all this for him, for his _birthday_, something Nico himself had never thought twice about. He felt so… happy. And cared for. Like he _mattered_. He leaned back in and hugged Will.

"Thank you," he whispered into his chest.

"Happy birthday, Death Boy."


End file.
